The City of Sweet Home will request the extension of its library and police local option levies on the November ballot.
The library levy includes a request for a 69.7-percent increase to expand library services. The police and dispatch levy requests a 10.7-percent increase to maintain current service levels and provide a match for a possible grant.
The Sweet Home City Council approved resolutions last week at its regular meeting to submit the levies for the ballot.
The current levies will expire on June 30. The extended levies will run from July 1 to June 30, 2007.
The November general election does not require a 50-percent voter turnout to approve the levies. The remaining elections prior to the expiration of the levies require 50 percent of voters to turn out for the election in addition to a majority voting in favor for approval of the levies. Each levy would increase by up to 3 percent per year over its four-year life.
Sweet Home Public Library
Sweet Home Public Library’s requested increase, $122,000 to $208,000, mostly represents a staffing increase with the addition of a part-time library assistant and increasing Library Director Leona McCann’s hours per week from 30 to 40. The staffing increase would be needed to open the library on Wednesdays and expand hours.
The levy also includes money for new books and to maintain the computers used for public Internet access. The library will install four new computers through a $16,000 Gates Foundation grant, which requires the replacement of one every three years.
The library as operated on a “shoestring” for years, McCann said. The increase provides Wednesday hours, which patrons have requested.
“We’re hoping to expand library hours and open on Wednesday,” McCann said. “We would need another part-time person, and I need to go full time.”
The library has three part-time permanent employees and McCann. The last time, the library increased staffing levels was in 1988.
At current hours, the library has many days where circulation hits 300, McCann said.
“Circulation is up, but we have more things going on now than we did before,” Library Assistant Dyan Brown said.
The new things range from the growing summer reading program, held on Wednesdays in July, to computers, other programming and new media, such as video and books on tape. The library also is working on entering information on its 45,000-piece collection into a database. The library had a collection of about 30,000 in 1988.
“All of these things take time,” McCann said. “And because we’re not automated, we’re helping customers.”
To help cover increasing book costs and provide additional material, the library will increase its total book budget from $27,000 budgeted for this year to $33,000, up from last year’s $23,000. The new figure works out to be 57 percent of the libary’s total materials and services budget. The last two years of the four-year levy will include $35,000 for books. The book budget is used to purchase books, subscriptions, videos and books on tape.
Beyond service levels, Finance Director Pat Gray said, the library currently does not have enough cash flow to operate between July and November when tax dollars become available. The library must borrow from the general fund during that period. The general fund is reimbursed after taxes become available. The levy would provide the cash flow to operate for the first four months of the fiscal year.
Further, the library building is more than 30 years old. It was designed for 20 years, and maintenance costs have increased heavily in recent years. Building and grounds were $4,333 for 2001-02. In 1999-00, the cost was $1,658. Utilities are up fro $8,100 to $10,400 in the same period.
The proposed levy provides $5,000 per year to a reserve fund for expanding the library building to the east. Funds that had been reserved were used to replace the library’s air-conditioning and heating system, which broke down last year, and for new carpet. The Friends of the Library have saved some $5,158 toward the expansion.
Historically, the library operated on an $83,000 levy from 1992 to 1997. During that time, the general fund provided some support to the library. The library was fully funded by a levy starting in 1997. That levy started at $112,000 and has increased by 3 percent per year. It is $122,000 this year.
The library circulated 42,926 items in fiscal 1988-89. In 2001-02, the library circulated 51,106 items. In July, the library circulated 5,218 items. The biggest month last year was July with a circulation of 4,879.
McCann calls Sweet Home Public Library “a real treasure” and says that it is the best library in the state, providing the “biggest bang for the buck.”
Sweet Home Police Department
The Sweet Home Police Department is seeking $1,631,000, up from $1,474,000, to maintain its current service levels for law enforcement and dispatch services.
The increase reflects rising costs over the course of the existing levy, including insurance premiums and “catch-up” pay increases.
“We went into this current levy locked into no more than 3 percent, which is as it should be,” Chief Bob Burford said. The department was understaffed for most of the levy, and the department was able to stay within its budget.
At full authorized strength about 10.7 percent more to operate this year, Chief Burford said. In estimating for a new levy, the department needs to assume it will be fully staffed the whole time and unable to save any money through unfilled positions.
Even with this increase, the department will have increased the levy by an average of 3.2 percent per year since the department went to a levy, Chief Burford said.
The department also is including match for a grant to hire a school resources officer, Chief Burford said. If the grant is denied, the city could choose not to levy the match money, but it must be budgeted in case the grant is approved.
The grant would pay 75 percent of the cost of the officer over three years. The department would be asked by the grantor, U.S. Department of Justice, to continue the position for at least one year past the life of the grant, three years. A police officer costs approximately $70,000 per year counting benefits, salary and associated costs. That would be the final year of the levy, 2006-07.
Outside of the potential grant position, the levy has no increases in service, Chief Burford said.